| Hello, my name is Alex Sulliban. I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. Growing up I was never an “athletic” kid, even though I was always around sports. I was the kind of kid who would trip over his own feet when running. I was young when I started wrestling and it was because it was a new sport at the gym that I was attending, and it looked interesting. This decision changed my life forever. |
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| The name of the club was Pistol Wrestling Club, and it was coached by Pete Martin. It was a brand-new club so we didn’t do any tournaments for awhile. The practices at this time were fun and easy beginner practices which really led to me staying with the sport. Eventually, we did start entering tournaments, but only after we had enough experience. For the first few years I enjoyed all of it, from the practices to the tournaments. That started to change when I moved up to the advanced division |
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| In the first few years of my wrestling career, I was always entered into the beginner division in tournaments. After a few years, wrestlers moved up to the advanced or premier division which are much tougher than the beginners. When I moved up I started losing a lot more which brought my confidence down, and it caused me to build hatred toward the sport. Thankfully I never quit mostly because my parents wouldn’t let me. They would always drag me to practice whether I wanted to go or not. At the time, I hated them for it, but I’m really thankful for it now! Toward the end of my youth career, I started to see small improvements in my wrestling ability, and it really changed in high school. |
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| I wrestled at Western High School, and during my first offseason there, I lost a lot of weight. I was never a skinny kid before, and I went from 150 pounds to 132 pounds in a very short period of time. My head coach at the time, Don McGregor, and the assistant coach, Marcus Johnson, helped me improve my abilities as an athlete and my knowledge as a wrestler. This season was when I really started to love the sport again because I did really well, and even qualified for the State Tournament. In the offseason, Coach McGregor moved to Centennial High School and Coach Johnson took over as the head coach for the last three years of my high school career. |
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| Wrestling season with Coach Johnson was way different than I was used to it before. We did so much cardio, and we always had to listen to this one video during the cardio. The video is called >“Champions Manifesto” by Billy Alsbrooks on YouTube. While I found this video to be really annoying it really does have a good meaning behind it, and I find myself reflecting on what was being said in the video, still to this day. I still really hated cardio but it was a reason that I had such a successful career in high school wrestling. |
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| My Sophomore season went even better than the year before, and I was really loving it. I was Runner-Up at the Chaparral Tournament, Runner-Up at Regionals, and I took third at the State Tournament. I was looking forward to riding this momentum into the next season, but that’s when the Pandemic started. I lost my Junior year to the Pandemic, and it was really hard for me, but even during the lockdown, our team would go to a park before the sun even rose, and we would get a workout in. I didn’t like waking up early, but it needed to be done if I wanted to win the next season. |
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| Senior year was a blast. I did really well in school and on the mat. My record was 41-3 with 39 pins. I still did have a few losses, but I used them to push myself during practices. I won the Regional Tournament and the State Championship. I also went to the Iowa Postseason Nationals and took Sixth Place. I was bummed that I couldn’t have my Junior season and be a Two-Time State Champion, but I was happy that I got to even have a Senior Season. Going into college at UNLV I really wasn’t sure if I wanted to wrestle. I didn’t think I was going to, but my parents pushed me to go in for a season just to see if it was something I wanted to do during college. It was different because I didn’t really know anyone, but they are all good friends now. I did really well this season. As a True Freshman, I won the West Coast Conference and I made it to the Blood Rounds at Nationals. I am looking forward to coming back next season and getting that All-American Status. |
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| I want to thank a few people for the success that I have had along the way. I am so thankful to my parents for pushing me to stay with the sport. I wouldn’t be doing any of this without all the time and money that you sacrificed to send me to camp and tournaments. I want to thank my coaches, notably Coach Pete and Coach Johnson. You have all pushed me to the breaking point and helped me improve as a wrestler, and as a person. I also want to thank my teammates for always pushing me in practice and having fun with me after. |
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